Protagonists in games are split between those with no voice or personality (Jak, Mario, GTA3 guy, Gordon Freeman, Crash Bandicoot, Doom guy, etc), meaning the player can imprint their own personality on the character, and those with a clearly defined personality that drives the story (Ratchet, Spiro, Kratos, CJ, the new Prince of Persia, etc).
Diablo was until recently a series where the characters were more or less devoid of personality, letting the player "be" the character rather than just "control" the character. In Diablo 3 the characters are being given a greater degree of personality: no longer do we control "a" Barbarian but "the" Barbarian. Characters will now catch up with old friends and enemies and participate in conversations rather than just expressing their opinions on rare occaisions.
Is this a good idea in a game so based around playing with your friends, or is it cleverly adding depth to the game's story to the series? Discuss!
Make sure you vote - I don't really have an opinion to tell the truth: it's less wierd having 3 generic Barbarians in a game than 3 of the same person but at the same time I loved Kratos in God of War. He makes the Barbarian sound like a big softie
Depends on the game. Traditionally, in a RPG the character is suppose to be you (or how you view yourself), thus the character's voice and emotion is your own.
When A character has his own dialog and character you are not you, you are them.
With Diablo it's kind of like an RPG, the character's voice and emotion is largely you, as the character speak so seldom.
Where as in a game like God of War, the protagonist is voiced by themselves (well technically it't an actor, point is it is not you).
I like gmaes where I am a character, Medieval (Sir Daniel Forestque), Metal Gear Solid (Solid Snake), Devil May Cry (Dante), Planetscape: Torment (The nameless one), but I also like games where the player character is me (to a certain extent) like the computerised DnD games such as Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights.
Too much personality and you lose a huge amount of the ability to identify with the character as you are no longer them. At least for some people.
Some people like a fully customised character who is bland, or has only a few lines of spoken dialog, others prefer to be someone else.
I like both as it depends on the game.
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Just thought it would be interesting since Blizzard are going in a slightly different direction with their characters. Apparently most people are happy with this new approach (the characters having their own personalities in Diablo3).
The only problem I can see is players don't inhabit/own their character as much - they're less archetypes and more actual people, which is not nessecarily a good thing in a multiplayer game.
For example, if Prince of Persia was multiplayer and you could only choose to be the Prince or Farah, the suspension of disbelief would be broken by the large number of princes and farahs running around. On the other hand if you can be a generic arabian-acrobat-come-swordfighter or a generic anorexic-archer-chick-come-contortionist the game would make a bit more sense.
It didn't matter in Diablo 2 that all Necromancer/Barbarians/whatever had the same sort of voice because we knew where these guys came from, how they were trained and so on - they were similar but not the same person. If the Barbarian in Diablo 3 is a specific, well defined Barbarian with a strong character and a backstory, will it not make games with several Barbarians seem a little stupid?
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Diablo was until recently a series where the characters were more or less devoid of personality, letting the player "be" the character rather than just "control" the character. In Diablo 3 the characters are being given a greater degree of personality: no longer do we control "a" Barbarian but "the" Barbarian. Characters will now catch up with old friends and enemies and participate in conversations rather than just expressing their opinions on rare occaisions.
Is this a good idea in a game so based around playing with your friends, or is it cleverly adding depth to the game's story to the series? Discuss!
When A character has his own dialog and character you are not you, you are them.
With Diablo it's kind of like an RPG, the character's voice and emotion is largely you, as the character speak so seldom.
Where as in a game like God of War, the protagonist is voiced by themselves (well technically it't an actor, point is it is not you).
I like gmaes where I am a character, Medieval (Sir Daniel Forestque), Metal Gear Solid (Solid Snake), Devil May Cry (Dante), Planetscape: Torment (The nameless one), but I also like games where the player character is me (to a certain extent) like the computerised DnD games such as Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights.
Too much personality and you lose a huge amount of the ability to identify with the character as you are no longer them. At least for some people.
Some people like a fully customised character who is bland, or has only a few lines of spoken dialog, others prefer to be someone else.
I like both as it depends on the game.
The only problem I can see is players don't inhabit/own their character as much - they're less archetypes and more actual people, which is not nessecarily a good thing in a multiplayer game.
For example, if Prince of Persia was multiplayer and you could only choose to be the Prince or Farah, the suspension of disbelief would be broken by the large number of princes and farahs running around. On the other hand if you can be a generic arabian-acrobat-come-swordfighter or a generic anorexic-archer-chick-come-contortionist the game would make a bit more sense.
It didn't matter in Diablo 2 that all Necromancer/Barbarians/whatever had the same sort of voice because we knew where these guys came from, how they were trained and so on - they were similar but not the same person. If the Barbarian in Diablo 3 is a specific, well defined Barbarian with a strong character and a backstory, will it not make games with several Barbarians seem a little stupid?